I couldn't agree more with you. For instance, take the following function I wrote:

for ( @status ) {
my $pass = 0;
chomp;
# eliminate that nasty terminator! :)
$_ =~ s/\0//;
# Ignore the stuff that comes from this
# command for now. Maybe later I will
# use this information for something but
# I will wait until a more mature release
# of this code.
if ( $watch ) {
# I know this next section looks obfuscated
# but actually, it was the easiest way for me
# to accomplish my task here.
# This block takes data that looks like this:
#
# player name number number
# IPaddr number number <- one record
# player name number number
# IPaddr number number <- another record
#
# and parses out just the name per record
# so that the array is now propagated with
# player name <- from reocrd 1
# player name <- from record 2
# etc.
# NOTE to self: You will probably need to get
# the IP address at some point here!
$pass = 1
if $pass == 0;
$pass = 2, $_ =~ s/( .*).*//
if $pass;
$pass = 1 # place regex to extract IP here
if $pass == 2;
push( @player_info, $_ )
if $_;
}
# start counting after we see the "-"'s
$watch = 1 if ( /-/ );
}
if ( $#player_info >= 0 ) {
return($#player_info + 1);
} else {
return(0);
}
}